Movie Review -- Departed

Don't read this if you haven't watched it.

*************** SPOILER WARNING ***************

This movie was not oscar material. It was entertaining for sure. It was typical Martin Scorsese, definitely. It was disappointing in that it was apparently a complete remake of a Chinese film called Infernal Affairs, actually, so much a remake that it was scene for scene. Infernal Affairs (called Mou gaan dou in China) it is said was actually better than Marty's take on it. And it wasn't like Marty was making a remake of a 50 year old movie either, the movie was made in China in 2002. Jeesh, what is it saying about us that not only are we getting product from China and lessons in globalization but now we have to get our film ideas from them too? Sad.......

So why did Martin Scorsese win? Let's face it, he was given the Oscar as recognition for all his work. Do you really think people will remember Departed as a ground breaking, memorable film for years and years to come? No. But people will remember the type of film that Martin Scorsese makes and for that, he deserves an Oscar. Should it have been this year? Should he have been "encouraged" to stretch and make something even more innovative? Who knows.....

Physical Therapy Update

OK, so awhile ago I posted how I put off going to the physical therapist because I was concerned about the $1,000 a year coverage limit. I finally couldn't take the pain anymore in my shoulder and went to the PT place. I asked them to check coverage for me, just to be sure. I didn't want to run over the limit. She called and checked, it's unlimited. WHAT! Woohoo!! So, now I'm like, well why did my insurance company screw me last year when I went for my neck and only cover me for $1,000 leaving me with a nice $400 bill before I was notified I was cut off? I called them to find out the scoop. After many menus, much button pressing and speech activated menu navigating, I finally got a real person. Although, I'm not too sure you can call them real since they read almost every single word in our 10 minute conversation from a script. I could tell because she wasn't a good reader. A little slow. That's the new thing you know, almost every call center of any size has "scripted" employees. They read all questions, answers, etc from a set of scripts. It can be very aggravating, but don't try to bypass it because they cannot function if you veer from their script. Automatons.....

So I discovered that my "health" plan has 2 special exclusions for physical therapy. If you go for your back or your feet (your feet, really??), you have a $1,000 limit per calendar year. Your neck is part of your back because it's part of your spine. How stupid. I'm sure these exclusions are because most people who need physical therapy need it on their back, or apparently, their feet. The US system allows insurance companies to basically deny or limit coverage based on any whim they may have. Let me just tell you how ridiculous the American health care system is. How rigged. How against the normal everyday person and frankly, to some degree against the doctors, too.

Life Update

Well, I thought I would just throw out some info about all that's going on in my life right now cause I'm sure you've been wondering why I haven't been blogging. I've been too busy! It feels overwhelming, invigorating and exciting to have so much going on. As I mentioned to you all before I've been going to physical therapy for my shoulder & neck. Wow is it hard and very painful. I had to go 3 times a week but now I have to go back to the Ortho guy for a re-evaluation. My therapist, Darlene (who I'm pretty sure is gay but she is very, very professional and cleverly doesn't let on about anything in her personal life) is recommending me for more visits.

I am currently planning for a 4 day scrapbooking getaway at the end of March. That'll be a blast but there is a lot of planning that goes into these sorts of things. How much alcohol to bring, which pictures to scrap, who the masseuse is going to be, etc.

My mom and 2 of her sisters are coming in April 6th. I'm very excited about this. We're going to have a lot of fun. They all come in 3 hours apart at LAX. So, all day Friday I'll be driving back and forth to the airport. We'll be going to Disneyland, the Griffith Observatory, the Huntington Gardens for high tea (that reminds me, I have to make reservations for that....) and all sorts of fun, touristy stuff. I hope to be blogging that whole trip so stay tuned for that.

Just Stuff

My personal trainer (yes, I have one. I live in Los Angeles don't I) suggested that I let my hair grow longer and have it cut to look like Ellen Degeneres. He says she has baby fine hair, too. What do you think? Think I'd look good with an "ellen" haircut?

On the way home from the gym I pass thru Beverly Hills. Today I saw 5 cop cars and 9 cops arresting a guy. There's a joke in there somewhere right? How many Beverly Hills cops does it take to make an arrest?

By the way, if you live in Los Angeles you MUST know what IMDB is. People use it as a verb or noun in conversations. It's THE movie website with all the scoop.

I love singing in the shower with my parrot. He cracks me up. He sings and dances with me. He's bobbing and weaving and squawking....I wonder if he thinks I'm bobbing and weaving and squawking?

Hey all those Canadians reading my blog. Big shout out to all of you! How many of you are out there??? You can post comments even if you don't have a blogger account by doing anonymous. Jeesh that's a hard word to spell.

Lesbians take the Academy by Storm

What an amazing night in Hollywood Sunday night. Unfortunately it's only now that I've had a chance to blog about it. When I saw Ellen Degeneres up on that stage I thought to myself, Wow, she's come a long way. Do you remember when she was practically run out of Hollywood for coming out on the Ellen show back in 1998.

The "Ellen Show" was successful enough in its early seasons to warrant annual renewal, due largely to DeGeneres' perceived appeal and comic ability, but it was never a huge critical or ratings success. Only with Ellen's coming out did the show make its way into the wide public conciousness and hit a critical plateau. However after the initial coming out frenzy the show's ratings declined somewhat and ABC began feeling the pain of an organized backlash from religious conservative groups regarding the "gay content" being exhibited. While the final episodes of "Ellen" continued breaking new ground and winning awards, they were also widely criticized for focusing primarily on gay issues -- a criticism begun in anti-gay circles but which spread very quickly to the mainstream media. The brass at ABC found the justification they needed to finally pull the show from the air in May of 1998 after five seasons.

Where are we now? Not only has Ellen just hosted a very successful and more importantly, funny Oscar show but she has a successful talk show. Not to mention she's probably wealthy beyond belief. You go girl! Way to keep plugging and overcome adversity. The power of positive thinking? Or a sign of the times? Right place......etc

And what about Melissa Etheridge taking home the Oscar for Best Song? Kissing her girlfriend on National TV in front of 100's of millions worldwide and then telling Oprah's buddy backstage that "Oscar will be the only man to see my bedroom". Hehe. We certainly have come a long way!

Acupuncture Treatment #1

I'm having a lot of pain in my right shoulder and while I am starting physical therapy, I thought I would also supplement it with Acupuncture. Since my health insurance only covers $1000 of physical therapy, which is only about 8 visits, PT isn't going to solve the problem. So, I'm trying to find an alternative. Here's some pix with all my needles.

Lions for Lambs - another post....

Me and one of my techs (Drew) sitting behind Senator Tom Cruise's desk. Those pictures behind us are of the U.S. Senator (Cruise) and famous people, like Bush, the Dali Lama, etc. All professionally photoshopped of course. 3 of our Mitel IP Phones are sitting on and behind his desk.

LPGA at Turtle Bay, Hawaii

This past weekends LPGA SBS Turtle Bay tournament was fun to watch even if Paula Creamer won. Paula, rookie of the year in 2005, and completely winless in 2006, finally pulled off a win after an 18 month drought. Some feel she's talented, some think she's a bitch, and some a spoiled teenager; she's probably all of those things. I think players to watch this year instead of Paula Creamer would more likely be Julieta Granada , a young little fireball out of Paraguay that won the $1,000,000 ADT tournament to close out the 2007 season (and finished 2nd on the money list). Her mother caddies for her which I find rather endearing. She's also a phenomenal player with excellent putting. I think her putting is far more successful than Annika Sorenstam's or Ochoa's and would be on pair with the men. The PGA tour seems to demand and have a much lower putt ratio.

Speaking of Annika Sorenstam, where was she in the opening tournament of the LPGA? Especially considering the recent USA Today article about her disappointment in 2006 (even though she made $2,000.000) and her re-committment to winning Player of the Year in 2007.

In case you were wondering, Michelle Wie missed the SBS Open at Turtle Bay due to her falling and hurting her wrist. She was scheduled to appear in the event. All the news that is Wie can be found here. I haven't seen her compete in a LPGA event in a while. She's too busy trying to make a PGA cut than to actually get a win on the LPGA. I realize that it's great TV spotlighting for her, great for the sponsors, but if you never make the cut, what does it matter? Who is her agent/publicist/handler? She bugs me.

The Big Day

Today is an auspicious day in the life of Dawn. It's Dena and I's 16th anniversary. Since we're not really "married" it's not really our wedding anniversary, but it's a date we decided on many years ago. It's actually kind of wierd typing that, "many years ago". I feel grown up. I don't remember now why we picked the 16th, but it's been our date for so long that it doesn't really matter now. I wonder what would happen if we had a wedding? Would we move the date? Sorry, I digress....

When I think back on the 16 years with Dena, I remember only good times, many adventures, much laughter and fun. Sure there have been hard times, but nothing that could cloud the incredible journey that we've been on.

I can't tell you how fortunate I feel knowing that I will have her by my side for the rest of my life. She never walks in front of me, never behind me, always beside me. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Ah it's that time of year.....

The time of year when the rains think about subsiding in Southern California, the time of year when there is a little more sunshine, a little more daylight and new buds start on my trees. Yes, folks, that's right -- It's LPGA time!!!

I just watched Karrie Webb finish off her 6th win at the ANZ open in Australia ( a European Women's Golf Event). I love sitting, having my lunch and watching women's golf during the week. I'll DVR tournaments all weekend long so that I can watch them piecemeal over lunch throughout the week. It sort of calms me......God knows I need that in my life. Interesting item to note is that the ANZ tournament in Australia, first prize was only $120,000. No wonder these players want to play on the LPGA. More $$$

I'm also looking forward to this weekends SBS Turtle Bay LPGA kick off tournament on Oahu, Hawaii. Briana Vega winner of Donald Trump's Big Break VI has an exemption to play in this one and I'm interested to see how she does. I also love all the courses in Hawaii as the Pacific Ocean makes a breathtaking backdrop.

Ramblings.....

I supposedly live in the richest country in the world and I have to be manage my health care options. How ridiculous. I only get $ 1,000 of Physical Therapy coverage a calendar year, so I have to worry and plan and think, that if I use it now, in February, will I be screwing myself later in the year if I need it? What if the $1000 doesn't cover it? What if I'm not better after ~ 10 PT visits? After all, with the rates they charge a grand will only get me about 10 visits. What will I do then?

We've been missing one of our cordless phones for about a week now. We just couldn't find it. Dena said it had to be my fault because I move them around so much. Well, they are cordless! Isn't that a given. I found it yesterday. It was outside on the patio wall. I guess I left it there while I was washing the windows a couple weekends ago. It's since rained. The phone is, well, you might say, dead......

When I looked in the mirror today I received a startling reflection - me, with small wrinkle lines on my neck. When the hell did those pop up? I just kept thinking to myself -- "is this because I don't drink enough water?" God knows it can't be because I'm getting old. hmmm, perhaps I am getting old, after all I did leave the phone outside for a week.

More on set visit

Susie from Propstar had a camera and I have pictures of my tech (Drew) and I in the senator's office, in front of the United States seal and other such memorable pix. During our positioning of the phones, lights and cords there was some guy sitting in the senator's chair. I thought to myself, he looks a lot like Tom Cruise. Well, he's Cruise's stand in. While they are setting up camera shots, lighting, rehearsing moving camera shots, etc. they use stand ins to do the scene. The stand in for Meryl Streep and Cruise were very similar in body type, basically they are supposed to be doubles, so same hair/eye color, same skin tone, same height, same body type, wear the same clothes, etc. This is for lighting, camera angle, prop placement, etc. Because we sure wouldn't want Meryl Streep standing around while they got the lights right, eh. She was lounging about in her Star trailer while all this was going on.

By the way, I forgot to tell you that I saw all 3 of the stars, Meryl Streep, Robert Redford and Tom Cruise. I only saw Cruise for a couple seconds. He's quite a short little fellow. Meryl Streep is beautful and she laughed a ton on the set during rehearsals. Robert Redford sat about 3 feet from me while he was discussing scene changes with the script guy. Him and Cruise apparently co-direct and co-star in the movie. While we were on set Cruise was acting, so we didn't really see him behind the camera. BTW, directors aren't really behind the camera, the camera guy is. The director just reviews the clip, makes corrections as he sees fit, etc. The one long (if you could call 30 seconds long) scene that I was there for too 3 hours of rehersals and about 14 takes. Some of the takes were ad libs by Meryl Streep (it was her scene), some were exactly on script and some were just flubs. Not flubs on Meryl's part of course, she was always perfect, except of course when she dropped her lipstick across the floor. hehe

Hobnobbing with soon to be screen legends....

Today was spent babysitting the set of Lions for Lambs. As you read in a previous post Mitel's phones are used as props in the movie. They are to be fully functioning props so there was concern that Tom Cruise would pick the phone up and either it wouldn't work, or more likely, he wouldn't know how to use it.

This morning started at 6:30 on the set. We set up some "receptionist" style phones which was a big deal with flashing and solid lights to make it look busy. I'm sure these lights will never be seen as the shot was filmed from the other direction this afternoon. Oh well. Then we hung around and waited, and waited and waited. I wondered why people had magazines, papers and laptops at their little stations. It was to entertain themselves throughoutthe day. We were told of the rules:

1. Do not look Tom Cruise in the eye. (hehe get real)
2. When they say quiet on the set, it's a dead stop, no coughing, no whispering, no moving, stand still.
3. Never enter the sound stage (or exit) when the red light is flashing.
4. No personal cameras. That was ok because I forgot the memory card for mine. DUH!

Around 10:30 we heard a call "The senator's coming!" That meant that Tom Cruise (Senator Irving from Illinois) was coming into the sound stage. People scurried around and got real quiet. They spent about an hour filming about 1 second of footage of Tom Cruise holding some critical piece of paper at the Senator's desk. How time consuming.

More tomorrow....

A Quote for your day -

Be motivated - it's Tuesday, there are still 3 more days left in your week to get something big accomplished!

"Complacency is the single biggest roadblock to continuous improvement."

Busy Week

It's been a busy week - I was in an ITIL certification course - I won't bore you with the details but suffice it to say it's a management level course and has no technical knowledge in it. Very different and quite interesting, however, quite dry as well. So, that's my excuse why I haven't been blogging.....

But, this blog isn't about that course, it's about some of the things that happened in the course. Personal space - I've always needed a little more of a personal space buffer than your average person. I'm not sure how those people in Japan exist. I would be freaking all the time. I'm not even sure I could travel there. So there was this jewish fellow in the class. I'm not sure why his religion matters, perhaps as a stereotype to his behavior, you be the judge..... So in the class there are 6' tables with 2 people per table. A little cramped, one must respect the other's space. The guys name was Kudmar or something, anyway, he was always inching over into my space. I hate that shit. I hate it in scrapbooking, I hate it in the movie theater and I sure as hell hate it when I'm in a training class that costs $1,500. So we come back from lunch the first day, and surprise, surprise, I have to go to the bathroom, I come in a little late and his laptop power cord is hanging over my side, his empty tea bag is like 8" on my side, yes, I mentally measured. His knee keeps whacking my leg, too. So I'm not crazy. I know what you're thinking...

So, his blatant infringement into my personal space is almost consuming my thought processes and I'm having trouble concentrating on the lecturer. Later in the afternoon we're having a lively discussion in the class and I've forgotten about his transgressions for the moment, then all of a sudden I feel my chair pull back a little and feel a presence. In a split second I glance back and see his hand and arm on my chair. I have an instant reaction, and say to him, "Please do not do that." He looks at his hand and then at me in disbelief. I repeat, "please remove your hand from my chair." He apologizes and we had no more infringement's for the next 3 days. Problem solved :-)

Lions for Lambs

My company's publicity department is providing the phones for this 2007 Robert Redford directed film. We have a department that specifically provides phones for "product placements" in movies, series, etc.

Lions for Lambs stars Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise. He's a senator in the film and according to the prop people a real monster if things aren't perfect on the set. Based on that whole Oprah incident I suspect he's a monster all the time.....so dramatic...... So we have to install the phones 3 days before to make sure they are correct.

The Washington, DC scenes will be filmed on the lot at Universal in the next 2 weeks. Apparently this movie has 3 different story lines that parallel one another, similar to Babel. How we are all connected whether we know each other or not. Unfortunately, due to a move in the shooting schedule I will be unable to put the phones in as I have a prior committment so I have to delegate it.

Daylight Savings time Change

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Pub.L. 109-58) is a statute that was passed by the United States Congress on July 29, 2005 and signed into law by President George W. Bush on August 8, 2005 at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Act, described by proponents as an attempt to combat growing energy problems, provides tax incentives and loan guarantees for energy production of various types. The reason for writing this today has to do with Daylight savings time and preparing your computers for the change.

The bill amends the Uniform Time Act of 1966 by changing the start and end dates of daylight saving time starting in 2007. Clocks will be set ahead one hour on the second Sunday of March instead of the current first Sunday of April. Clocks will be set back one hour on the first Sunday in November, rather than the last Sunday of October. This will make electronic clocks that had pre-programmed dates for adjusting to daylight saving time obsolete and will require updates to computer operating systems. The date for the end of daylight saving time has the effect of increasing evening light on Halloween (October 31).

See the Microsoft web site for an explanation of what to do to your Windows machine according to which operating system you are running. For those of you with Mac's, you're on your own.

My bad

Some people use this slang term as a round about way of saying they are sorry, or "my mistake". I find it a very aggravating term in that if you screwed up, just say you are sorry. I have also found that over the last year or two, the teens, twenty somthings, etc are no longer really using this term but the 40 & 50 somethings are. Another source of aggravation for me. An apology goes a long way, "my bad" gets no where with me! Below please find some interesting history on the term.

This slang term originated in about 1970. At that time, i.e. pre widespread Internet use, slang terms often circulated at street level for many years before being adopted by anyone who felt inclined to write them down. That's clearly not the case any longer and any word or phrase that is widely known is dateable quite precisely via website blogs.

The first citation in print is C. Wielgus and A. Wolff's, 'Back-in-your-face Guide to Pick-up Basketball', 1986: "My bad, an expression of contrition uttered after making a bad pass or missing an opponent."

Shakespeare used the term with something like the current meaning, in his Sonnet 112:
Your love and pity doth the impression fill
Which vulgar scandal stamp'd upon my brow;
For what care I who calls me well or ill,
So you o'er-green my bad, my good allow?
That's clearly just coincidence. It's also a world away from pick-up basketball. 'My bad' came into widespread popular use in the mid to late-1990s in the USA via the 1995 movie “Clueless”. This starred Alicia Silverstone and contains what seems to have been the first use of the phrase in the mainstream media. The 1994 'Green revision pages' for the movie script has a scene with the Alicia Sliverstone character learning to drive:
"Cher swerves - to avoid killing a person on a bicycle. Cher: Whoops, my bad."

Although a street term, it is virtually synonymous with the earlier Latin phrase, 'mea culpa'. It doubtless has as little of a direct descent from this as it does from Shakespeare's Sonnet 112. Regardless of its beginnings, it still bugs me......

An icy day of golfing

I knew we were in trouble when we walked up to the starter desk at the Encino Golf Course and they had started late due to frost on the course. I thought, ok, not good, they may be a little behind but it'll be ok. It seems to be warming up... Well the practice putting greens were closed due to frozen puddles on them. Ice, yes folks, I'm not kidding, patches of ice on the practice greens. As we drove from hole to hole yesterday our carts cruised over patches of ice all over the course. Some of the greens were closed and temporary greens were used. This was disappointing and a pain in the ass. Speaking of asses, Arlene has a chapped ass from the entire affair due to the cold and dryness.

We finally quite on the 15th hole at 4:30p as the temperature was plummeting. We just couldn't take the cold anymore. Morning temperature at Encino golf course: 29 degrees. BBBRRRRRR!

Memories

It's hard to believe I'm old enough to have memories from 20 years ago. I never really think of myself as that old. I guess I walk around all day in my mind thinking I'm 19.

So the other day, I was remembering about when my friend Marcy and I used to work at this law firm, Irell & Manella in Century City, CA. This was probably about 1987. This was a large law firm that occupied 5 or 6 floors in one of the large highrises in Century City. They were big babies. We did everything for them from a voicemail perspective. We recorded every greeting and name for every attorney in the joint and when the summer associates came, we did all their names and greetings, then deleted them in the fall. This was great $$ of course for the company we worked for.

They had many demands as far as message waiting lights and this is what occupied much of our time there. I remember Marcy and I strutting around with our tool belts hanging from our hips. I think we must have been quite the site. Marcy even got in trouble one day for wearing jeans that had rips in the knees and ass. This was before it was the "style". She was styling before it was stylish. I remember marvelling at the rich looking (and heavy!) desks with the piles and piles of paper surrounding them. Sometimes there was only a little path to the desk in the office, the rest was stacks of papers. It was so unlike the law shows on TV. We'd sometimes work late and steal candy and beer from the personal "executive" fridges on the floors. Those were the days....

Country loyalty

Dena and I were at a Los Angeles Kings game the other night. It was the Los Angeles Kings vs. the Edmonton Oilers. A US - Canadian matchup of 2 rival teams since the Gretzky days. As we nestled into our seats trying to stay warm in the cold arena the people around us started making comments. They made comments that Canada should be the 51st state and other disparaging remarks about my country. They whined about having to listen to the Canadian Anthem but as I proudly sang it I could hear the other Canadians in the arena singing just as loud. The female singer then sang the US anthem, no one sang, the players fidgeted and people chatted and snickered. Perhaps the players were fidgeting because 50% of them were Canadian on the Kings team. You see, when I went into the game that night I couldn't decide who to root for. It didn't take long to recognize where my loyalty lay.

We had incredible seats and I had phoned my family in Canada to see if they could see us on TV. All Canadian team away games are televised in Canada. Its not extra, its part of the package. Perhaps the cable companies in Canada are loyal too? My brother-in-law remarked that it sounded like the place was quiet as a library. I realized that it was. It was very quiet. Way too quiet for a hockey game. People in Canada scream, shout and cheer. The guy behind me yelled at some guy for standing up.

Are Americans as patriotic and loyal as the republicans make them out to be? Is patriotism only a badge worn when convenient? I never really understood why Americans don't sing their National Anthem at sporting events. It's a beautiful piece of music with a great story to tell. I've seen more than one Canadian moved to tears upon hearing it sung at a game. Perhaps Americans are just tired of it all.

Your comments on this blog are welcome. Just post as an anonymous user and wait 24 hours and they'll appear. Feel free to sign your name but you do not require a blogger account.

More Dodge Transmission issues

What a hunk of junk Dodge makes. In the beginning of November I took my 2006 Dodge Magnum into the shop for warranty repair on a significant transmission fluid leak. It took 2 days to repair and it was a known problem. For the last month my transmission has been leaking again, although not so bad, so I was sort of stalling. You know, with the whole Christmas/New years thing going on, I just didn't have time. Now I'd like to get it repaired before our trip to Palm Springs.

I called CarMax by LAX, you cannot schedule ANY car repair appointments until January 23rd. The first available appointment is the 23rd. That's insane. So I thought I'd be smart and call another dealership, Glendale Dodge. I got an appointment on January 17th, the earliest you can see the transmission guy. You see, there are so many transmission problems with new Dodge vehicles that they are terribly backed up. Her words, not mine. Do American car manufacturer's actually wonder why people buy Japanese brands?

Christmas Jammies

Rolling with the Denver Blizzard

Of course we had a flight on United Airlines today, through the Denver airport on our way to Edmonton. As you all know the Denver Airport closed on Wednesday the 20th due to severe blizzard conditions and snow. They've since gotten about 2' of snow and if any of you are familiar with the airport you know its in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by miles and miles of rolling prairies. They plow the runway and 30 minutes later there are huge drifts on it again. Read the latest on Denver here. My company apparently has several people stuck in the Denver airport. What a sad place to spend 2 nights sleeping on the ground.

After trying for over 3 hours on Thursday to get thru to United (and being disconnected repeatedly by their systems) I gave up and called my trusty Mitel travel agent. Evelynne was wonderful as always, found us a flight on WestJet for $550 round trip and its direct! No where near Denver. We fly into Calgary and my family will come pick us up. You have to roll with the punches.

How am I going to get back the 80,000 miles that I spent getting our award tickets to Canada in the first place on United? Since I couldn't get thru for love nor money yesterday, I waited until midnight last night and called the 800#. Got right through. Talked to a lovely black woman who sounded like she was either drunk or stoned and she told me all the horror stories from the day. I asked her if she'd been drinking and she said just water. But she said that water and vodka are the same color. She was very colorful herself and we had a fun go of it. I'm just hoping my miles are back in my account.....

Cappuccino for Cops?

Or has the United States left every child behind?
This sign was in the mini mall near my house.

My Calculator

It's weird how we hang on to the strangest things. I have this Sharp scientific calculator that I know I had in Winnipeg, MB when I was in University or before. I must have bought it for the abstract calculus classes in the Computer Science program. I hated that class..... The calculator was state of the art at the time. Now they make calculators that graph for you right on the screen, but I digress. So if I bought this calculator around 1981-1983 its about 25 years old. I'm just ripping the batteries out of it now because it's dead. I have to buy new ones and I'm going to. Why throw it away? It's still very useful. I still use it, although not as much. I use the calculator on the computer more even though I hate that one.

This quote comes to mind: Usefulness is not impaired by imperfection. You can still drink from a chipped cup. Or in this case, an old calculator.....

Sienna Rose - Born December 1st

What is Phishing

Phishing is a form of Internet fraud that aims to steal valuable information such as credit cards, social security numbers, user IDs and passwords. A fake website is created that is similar to that of a legitimatorganizationon, typically a financial institution such as a bank or insurance company. An email is sent requesting that the recipient access the fake website (which will usually be a replica of a trusted site) and enter their personal details, including security access codes. ...

The latest phishing scam has to do with paypal. This phish is almost comically clumsy to the naked eye, and we're not here to analyze it seriously. The e-mail is extremely simple, composed only of text and no real attempt to make it look like it came from PayPal other than using a "service@paypal.com" address. The subject line of the email is: You have added a new e-mail address to your account. (normally this would freak you out if you had paypal as it would mean someone hacked you).

How to combat phishing schemes? The answer is ALWAYS the same! Never click on an embedded link in an email, especially one you didn't know was coming. So you ask, "how do I know then if my paypal (or bank or whatever) account was hacked. Launch a separate browser window, log in to your account and see what if anything has changed. I myself received this phish for the paypal account. It was about 2 weeks after we changed email addresses for the TimeWarner/Comcast buyout so I was confused. I just logged in to my paypaaccountnt and checked the email addresses. Simple. I never clicked on the link embedded in the email message.

Educate yourself about phishing at Phishing

Internet Explorer 7.0 & Heuristics

Or - What has Microsoft done for me lately?

In case some of you using Windows XP haven't noticed, one of the Automatic Windows updates that you may have downloaded automatically or by just trusting Microsoft by clicking download - was that you automatically downloaded IE 7.0. What does this mean? Well for most people, it means more security! YAY!! One of the most important features of IE 7 for home users is that the new browser includes Heuristics. The definition of Heuristics is: A problem-solving technique (in the computer world - an algorithm) in which the most appropriate solution is selected using rules. Interfaces using heuristics may perform different actions on different data given the same command. All systems using heuristics are classified as intelligent.

What does this do for you? Simply put - Microsoft has enabled your Internet Explorer browser to actually notify you if you stumble upon a phishing scam or website. It reports the site as "Suspicious". The site has not been reported, at least not yet conclusively, as a phishing site, but IE7 has examined the site programmatically and determined that it has characteristics of a phishing site. I think that is pretty cool to the casual home user.

I've looked back in my years of blogs and see that I don't have any information on phishing scams. Wierd, I thought for sure I blogged about that. I will bore you with that in another post.

The real Living and Dining Room

Health Check

Well here I am 8 days after the whole coughing fit, blow out all the muscles in my neck, ER trip. What type of recovery have I had? I know you are all dying to know..... Well, for the first 5 days it was absolutely brutal. Any movement was painful for my neck due to the strained muscles and pulled ligaments. The bronchitus has been exhausting and its only today that I feel a little like myself. That's 8 days after diagnosis and probably at least 10 days after I developed it. I'm on my 3rd dose of antibiotics, the first being the shot in the butt of Roxithromycin , the second being a Z pack (a whimpie one), the 3rd starting Tuesday of levaquin. I seem to be coughing up much less green globlets since I started the levaquin. That's a big bonus. I tire very, very easily. Just a trip to lunch is exhausting or taking the garbage out. It's incredibly frustrating.

Now I just have to be very careful not to overdue it. Bronchitus, especially in asthmatics, tends to have a high relapse rate and we all know how I am. The overachiever to be sure.

Trunk Monkey - Compilation

3 Beautiful Things

1) Sinking a 25' putt for par on the 4th at Roosevelt GC.
2) The satisfying feeling of actually getting the LA Times to pay for the screen door that their carrier thru our Friday paper thru - 2 Friday's in a row.
3) The smell of fresh paint as we paint our Living Room.

2 Things that piss me off

1) The idiots at Time Warner HighSpeed internet that came out here on Saturday and didn't do anything to fix the problem, totally wasting my time.
2) My neighbor who has 4 big labs that shit on my lawn and he doesn't seem to think he should clean it up.

The bizarre of the day

Well, pretty much anything in Los Angeles......

Our new Dining Room -

What do you think? Is it too pink?

Emergency trip 1 of 1 for 2006, hopefully

Well last night was spent in the emergency room. I was at a Technical Training class in Anaheim yesterday and had such a bad coughing fit that I was spitting up blood and pulled every single muscle in my neck. I could hardly move. I've never really felt that kind of pain in my chest. It was like each time I coughed a thousand tiny pins were poking my inner chest. That can't be good.

Somehow I got myself to the Bellflower Medical Center at 5:00p and finally left at 8:30p. Not bad considering it was an ER. I had a chest x-ray, blood drawn, 2 breathing treatments, a shot for pain in my ass and another shot of antibiotics on the other side of my ass. All in all, a good day for my ass. The Bellflower ER is small, tiny even. I wouldn't recommend going there after 5pm or on weekends as I'm sure its a miserable place. Of course, if you needed medical treatment during business hours, then you'd go to your doctor right? I suppose in hindsight that's what I should have done, a day or two earlier before it got so bad. Who knew?

I was sent home with a stack of prescriptions and this morning finds me extremely sore all over, can't turn my head at all. It's going to be a lovely day.

Neighboroo

A very cool Google website

http://www.neighboroo.com/

My Dodge Magnum - in the shop

Transmission problems and Dodge/Chrysler seem synonymous. In 1980 I received possession of my parents 1972 Dodge Charger. I was thrilled. Little did I know the litany of electrical and transmission problems that would plague me for the next 6 years. I gladly let the vehicle be totaled when I did a couple 360's on the Winnipeg overpass due to ice (and bald tires....). I vowed never to buy a Dodge.

Flash ahead 20 years and I have a '06 Dodge Magnum (company car) and it now has 11,600 miles on it. Barely broken in right? Well, its in the shop because the transmission fluid is leaking like a sieve on my driveway. Did you know that most Chevy and Dodge/Chrysler new cars now have sealed transmissions with no dipstick? You cannot check the fluid level yourself, the color of it, the smell of it, nothing. If you want service, guess what, off to the dealer with you. Now of course, this issue is a warranty item and I will not pay anything for it, however, it is a royal pain in the ass & today is day 2 that they've had the car. Oh, and CarMax (the Dodge dealer I took it to in Inglewood) said that they had 4 cars yesterday with same problem. The 300's, Chargers and Magnum's all use the powertrain. Great. Gotta love American quality.

Time Warner flogs Comcast and me

I hate big conglomerates. They just screw the little guy, the consumer, me. Time Warner bought Comcast Cable/High Speed Internet as most of you locals are painfully aware. On 10/21/06 they officially changed over from Comcast to TW. This is such a pain in the ass. In a perfect world the only thing that people trying to get in touch with me should notice is that I sent them an email with my new email address. You see, emails from the old comcast.net address are supposed to be magically forwarded to the new ca.rr.com address. Sometimes they are not. Sometimes they are bouncing back. Sometimes they are delayed by 30-40 minutes. This is just unacceptable.

You would think they would have planned this well. Why wouldn't they send me a little app on a CD to go and magically change all the Outlook email account settings? Now I'm smarter than the average bear and I can do it, but not everyone can. I had to hold for 30 minutes on their LIVE INTERNET chat to get the bloody POP3 and SMTP server addresses. Why wouldn't they put that in a mailer or email or something! And to add insult to injury my connection keeps dropping. Totally bullshit! I HATE THEM ALL!!! And do you think they'll give me a credit, no. And even if they did, it'd be like one day. Big deal.

what a crappy week

Monday was a 12 hour day, Tuesday 18 hours, Wednesday 18 hours, Thursday 14 hours and Friday 8 hours + picking up my niece & nephew for the weekend. That's a lot of work in 5 days. 70 hours to be exact. This morning was a busy with the kids, then a play - Jungle Book at the Morgan Wixson theatre in Santa Monica. Finally back home to prepare for the Wilshire Vista neighborhood Halloween Festival. It almost feels like work....

Monday is another day and hopefully with Mitel's quarter end only 48 hours away, perhaps life will begin to take on some sort of normalcy.

3 - 2 - 1

3 Beautiful Things --

1) The woodpecker chowing down on little bugs on the 10th hole @ Brookside Golf Course.
2) Making par on the 9th hole (par 4)
3) Making my first 200 yard drive!

2 irritating things --

1) Having my body limit my ability to do what I want
2) The guy that lives 2 doors down and his 4 dogs that shit all over my lawn

1 - the bizarre --

And the bizarre is all 3 of us chipping from off the green on the 15th hole and 2 of us having it role in the cup, and me, the 3rd, landing 1/2 inch from the cup. Bizarre and unusual not to mention lucky!

3 - 2 - 1

There is this new thing on blogs called 3BT -- 3 beautiful things. I think I'm going to morph that and call it 3 - 2 - 1 ----> 3 Beautiful things, 2 things that piss me off, and 1 bizarre/unusual/LA kinda thing.

3 Beautiful Things:

1) Walking out my back door after a long morning of computer work and feeling the sun warm my body and release the stress
2) My new blackberry high definition color screen
3) My new Jabra bluetooth headset with interchangeable earpiece colors so I can customize it to my mood.

Things that piss me off:
1) Customer's that call in problems but don't test the actual problem first or perform any preliminary troubleshooting.
2) Office Depot -- I hate office depot. They have absolutely no customer service and usually one or less check stands open. They are often surly, which usually makes me surly.

And on a bizarre note:
-- Here's to the woman davining in the basement parking garage (facing a concrete pylon) of the Office Depot store. You win the bizarre/unusual/LA award today.

Thought for the Day

I couldn't have said it better, "Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived."
Captain Jean Luc Picard

Time

When I was younger I used to think - "if I could just survive this next hour, everything will be ok." Then as I got older I somehow started to modify this statement and it became, "If I can just survive this next hour, it'll be OK, you can endure anything for an hour." When did life become something you have to endure? As I got older still and in the work force I used to say, "oh this day is going to be tough, just suck it up, you can endure anything for a day."

Something happened to me this last summer, I had to say, "if you can just endure the next 6 weeks, it'll be ok." Wow, 6 weeks. That's a long time to endure. I find myself jumping from one fun occasion to the next. But these jumps are in my mind, and everything in between is just a blur. Is this why life goes quicker when you're older? When I was young time couldn't pass fast enough. I wanted to be 9, then 10, then 16, then 21. Then shortly thereafter I wanted time to slow down. Now that I want time to be slow, it's accelerating.

Funny how life works.....

What geeks do with their time..

Thought for the Day

Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer

Fairytale or Heartbreak

As the Dodgers deliver a crushing 19 to 11 victory over the Colorado Rockies today, closing in on the Padres, one can't help but reflect over the past 2 weeks, past 2 months and the entire 2006 Dodger season. Missed opportunities, spectacular moments, heartbreaking losses, and amazing, record breaking wins. One game caused the Baseball Hall of Fame to call the Dodgers and ask for the bats of the 4 home run hitters in that fairytale night September 19th. Check out the links here for Video and Print. On September 25th, another amazing night - Garciaparra hits a walk off grand slam home run with 2 outs in the 9th. Check out the article here.

There are but 3 games left to the regular season. It's an exciting time for baseball fans in Southern California. We run numbers, what if's and scenario, but mostly we hope. We hope that the next 3 days will bring wins and the miracles won't end until the World Series is over.

Isn't it Grand?

Tonight was quite a night. A Dodger game that they actually won. Sitting with friends in great seats. Drinking beer, eating nachos and hearing the crack of the bat and the slap of a 97 mpg fastball hitting the catcher's mitt. Ahhhhhhh baseball. Hope springs eternal as every game brings highs and lows as the Dodger's do their usual waffle and shuffle toward first place. Who knows, maybe we'll be going to the National League playoffs. As I said, hope springs eternal.

But the events for tonight didn't end under the big Think Blue sign in the parking lot. We scoot out of my perfect parking place and roar out of Dodger stadium. We drive into downtown LA and a calm comes over me. Civilization beckons. Moments later I sit holding a glass of champagne in one of the most beautiful hotels I've ever seen. We are toasting the 10 year anniversary of great friends of ours - Arlindo and Michael. What a fitting venue for the toast. The Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles on Grand. It truly is Grand. The hotel is truly breathtaking. Designed in the style of the Spanish Italian Renaissance, the hotel opened in 1923 to national acclaim, and was designated a Historical Cultural Landmark in 1969. The cathedral-like public room ceilings were hand-painted by Italian artist Giovanni Smeraldi of White House and Vatican fame.


Touted as the “host of the coast” from the beginning, the Biltmore became the place to be for Los Angeles high society, film industry czars and stars, conventioneers, and cross-country travelers. Among the momentous events held at the Biltmore was the founding banquet
for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It was at the dinner on May 11, 1927 that the concept and design for the “Oscar” were conceived. A statue was sketched on a napkin during a Crystal Ballroom banquet marking the occassion. The statue was named Oscar.

They hold high tea here and I plan on taking my aunts and my mother in April of 2007. I'm sure they will enjoy the architecture and beauty as much as I did this night. People ask me all the time why I live in LA. Here is one of the ten thousand reasons.........

My Mastercard Priceless Moment

We were sitting in our usual seats at the Dodger game Saturday night -- Gwyn and Jan were gesticulating wildly to the "Peanut Man". By the way, the peanut guy has a name and a website not to mention a book. They were in the mood for peanuts. The peanut guy was one row over and for some reason wanted Gwyn's money first. She passed him a twenty which usually irritates him and he took the change ($14.50) and folded it up into a nice little square and threw it back. Gwyn, being the girlie girl she is, missed it and the money fell to the ground. As she bent to pick it up I saw the "perfect pitch" and felt the rush as the green peanut bag flew past my nose and heard the "WHACK!" as it hit the back of Gwyn's head. The explosion of peanuts showered two rows of seats and fortunately Jan was there to save the remnants of the bag, picking it out of mid air.

The peanut guy came running over to see if she was ok, which of course she was, just her pride was hurt. I on the otherhand couldn't stop laughing for about an inning and a half.


Bag of peanuts at the stadium -- $ 5.50
Tickets to the Dodger game -- $112.00
Watching the bag of peanuts explode on Gwyn's head -- PRICELESS

Survivor - Episode 1

I found it interesting the whole hoopla about the contestants on survivor being divided into teams of 5, along racial lines. Survivor is a social experiment and frankly it sounded intriguing to me. My intrigue was definitely piqued after this first episode. First, I found it interesting that the African American team felt it was important that they represent their race and they mentioned it several times. The Asian team mostly talked about how they weren't really immigrants and how they are all from different parts of asia so not really properly represented. Perhaps that is the problem with Americans, we lump Asians (and other regions or races) into large groupings and fail to understand the major differences between the peoples. Phillipinos are certainly different in many, many ways from Koreans, and Koreans from Vietnamese, etc.
Although, one of my stereotypes came true in the challenge -- the asians won. From their puzzle expertise? From their teamwork? From their intelligence? From all 3 I believe.

The 3rd group, the latinos, were from all over the map in Central and South America and mostly spoke about how their work ethic and genetic ability to handle the warm/humid climate will come in handy. That remains to be seen. The white group didn't even have a shelter at the time of the challenge. So what does that say about work ethic? Hmmm, perhaps they were wondering where their latino construction workers were?

And remember - this blog is just my opinion, no one elses. If you don't like it, don't read it. Or comment on it! And also remember, for those of you computer challenged - you can' t post a comment if you have pop up blocker on - you have to click the little bar on the top of internet explorer to enable pop ups from this site.

Diagnosing your own medical problems

As some of you know I've been having some very inconvenient knee pain, unfortunately in both knees. My doctor wants me to schedule an MRI for both of them. She's a very cautious woman who loves to schedule me for tests. After much internet research I feel I can take a stab at diagnosing my problem..... I believe I have a stage 1 Medial Collateral Ligament (MCL) Tear. This is easily treated with the RICE principal and physical therapy, surgery is not required. Stage 1 MCL is indicated by pain in the inner region of the knee, minor swelling, no noticeable pain when moving the knee drastically, a general feeling or under confidence in the knees ability to hold when applying pressure.

I scheduled the MRI for Tuesday and have since been and received the results for the left knee. To tell you the truth after 25 minutes for the left knee I wasn't too keen on getting the right one done. MRI's are VERY loud. I was surprised. Everyone talks about how you have to be concerned about the closed environment, etc but no one ever comments on the damn noise. I knew I was in trouble when the tech gave me ear plugs. It was just unbelievably loud for the entire 25 minutes. It felt like someone was running a chainsaw inside my head.

So, what was the result of the MRI for the left knee? Mild bursitis. What a let down.....it's amazing how much discomfort I feel for such a silly diagnosis. So, the cure? RICE although I'm not sure how you can do R (rest) and E (exercise) at the same time, but whatever.

Queen of the Crop

This past weekend I attended a scrapbooking marathon to raise funds for Breast Cancer Awareness. My friends, co-workers and family all chipped in generously and donated $1,700 towards the cause. I cannot tell you how much it touched my heart to have the unwaivering support of those I love. I had many visitors to the event throughout the time as well as many phone calls. It was truly eye opening and much appreciated. Because of this support I felt it was my duty to ensure I stayed up the entire 24 hours to complete the committment. I did. It's amazing what your body goes thru during those strange hours after you've been up around 20 hours. I started at 8:30 am Saturday and ended at 9:00 am Sunday. As a result of the amount of time I cropped and the $ raised I won the designated title of "Queen of the Crop". This was the grand prize and came with a nice gift. Although it's a guilty feeling of accepting something for raising money for a good cause, it certainly is appreciated. The event was sponsored by Scrapbook Safari and the cause was Pink-Link.

Here's a picture of what goes on in your mind at about 4am

Watching golf on TV

As I sit in my hotel room in Atlanta I find myself watching the golf channel. It relaxes me, what can I say. And besides, regular TV is all reruns, you can only surf the web so much, and I have to save my book for the long plane ride tomorrow. How is that for a litany of excuses?

I think Michelle Wie should take her putter and throw it in the trash. Get a new one! You have to give her some credit though, for today she played the European Men's Open on a sponsor's invite - Omega. Many men, including those I've spoke with on planes, in computer rooms, etc., feel that women should not be allowed to play on the men's tour. Let's get real. It's all about the $$. Michelle Wie is a tournament attendance draw, she's good for TV ratings, she good publicity for the sponsor, in short, she's good for golf. Of course, she would have to make the cut. The golf channel for example, gave Michelle Wie almost a 1/3 of the air time for the entire Thursday replay of the Open even though she was 7 over par. I rest my case.....

I cannot imagine the pressure she was under. Playing with the men, playing at quite an elevation which causes your shots to sail further, and her and her playing partner were put on the clock because they were slowing the field down. Can you imagine? Rushed after the 4th hole. Wow. For the record, her playing mate faired just as poorly. Michelle spent a lot of time in the sand today. Practicing I suppose.....

I have a theory about your cart mate - whoever you ride with either elevates or deflates your game. Who affected who?
Just my opinion.....

Wings and things.....

I've just had the best wings I've had in about 12 years. Still the best are Wings 'N Curls in Hollywood, FL. Yes, Florida. Apparently there are a lot of Buffalo transplants there. But tonight, I had a close second. J. R. Crickets on Spring Street near Georgia Tech University was fantastic, although skinny little chicken. But the flavor was outstanding.

I ordered my wings mild along with shrimp, blue cheese dressing and a beer. It was hard to believe they were mild, I'd hate to try medium or their 3 Mile Island for that matter. As I sat there sucking bones my nose ran so bad I went thru a stack of napkins. I'm sure all the patrons, of which I was the only white one, thought I was a wimp. I admit it, I am. The shrimp was excellent with a cocktail sauce that had so much horseradish in it my toes curled with every bite. It was sooooooooooo goooooood. But the best part of all was the blue cheese sauce. WOW! The wing sauce and the blue cheese sauce are made right there in the restaurant. My friend Joyce had previously made the best blue cheese dressing I'd ever had, but J. R. Crickets now takes the blue ribbon. It was an amazingly creamy flavorful, but not overpowering chunky sauce. I can still taste it. WOW!!! I'll never be the same. Ah but alas, it's a long drive for dinner to Atlanta......

I highly recommend J. R. Crickets if you're ever in Hotlanta and if you're ever in Hollywood, FL, try Wings 'N Curls.

We can never lose our wonder

As I sat amongst friends the other night my little 9 year old niece reached over and plucked an eyelash from my cheek. She said, "Make a wish Auntie Dawn". I said I'd never heard of such a silly thing. She made the wish for me. As I sat in the car the next day an eyelash fell upon my cheek. As I looked at the tip of my finger at the offending eyelash, I decided to make a wish, I wished my trip would go well in Atlanta. Selfish I suppose, but I figured, hey, it's my eyelash.

I think that as we grow older and responsibility creeps in we start to lose our wonder and perhaps even our joy. Life should be lived everyday and every moment to it's fullest & if that means hoping that a wish you made on an eyelash comes true, then so be it. Just remember not to wait for that wish to happen, take it upon yourself to make it happen. We control the decisions we make in our lives and those decisions effect our happiness, joy and wonder.

For those of you unaccustomed to the eyelash wish -- if someone finds an eyelash on your cheek, they lift it off and present it upon their finger -- you must blow it off and make a wish. There is some belief that if you don't guess correctly what eye it came from then the wish won't come true.

State Route 125 & bureaucracy

Yesterday I had the frustrating pleasure of driving all the way down to San Diego to attend a mandatory Safety and Environmenal Protection training seminar for SR125 . This is required of all contractors working on the project. It doesn't matter whether you are involved in laying rebar or driving one of those huge earth movers or setting up furniture or servers in the operations building, everyone gets the same training and must adhere to the same safety rules and dress.

I get to wear a bright orange safety vest, hard hat, work boots, and safety glasses in the computer room while I'm installing the advanced application servers in a nice, air conditioned, clean room. This is for my safety. I also learned how to properly secure myself when working move than 6' above ground. I can properly read Material Safety Data Sheets in case I swallow battery acid or something, I can now properly egress into a trench or work in a confined space. Most importantly however is the ability I now possess to deal with environmental issues. I know who to call and how to proceed if I find any one of the endangered species that exist in this area in the computer room. I can also properly deal with any palentology issues that arise as a result of my trench digging in the nice clean, concrete computer room. Like arrowheads, sketal remains, etc. The only sketal remains that'll be found are mine from having to wear a stupid hard hat. Some of the animals in question are the Burrowing Owl, cactus wren, checkerbox butterfly and last, but not least, the fairy shrimp.

The accumulation of crap

As I sit at my desk I look at the accumulation of stuff all around me. There's the 1960 bubble gum cards of WWII that aren't really worth too much $$ but I can't seem to get rid of; there's the ticket stubs from games, concerts and events I've been to this year; there's my first puppy dog Shep's old dog tags, I loved that dog; magazines, books, plaques and awards; an old picture, a hard drive clock that doesn't keep the right time but is cool to look at.

Why do we keep this stuff? Each item I mentioned holds a memory for me. Those cards were given to me by my uncle when I was 6, the memories of the events live on thru that silly ticket stub, the pictures, the clock, it's all about the memories really. Why do we need to keep them? Aren't these memories in our mind's eye? Are they safe there? If I can walk from my home office to the kitchen and forget in the 5 seconds it took to make the trip, why I'm in the kitchen then how can I throw this stuff away? Obviously my mind is not fully functioning. I can't remember something from 5 seconds ago, how will I remember that Melissa Etheridge concert and where I sat? How will the memories be safe?

Perhaps the memories of these special events take up a more secure spot in our brain. Perhaps they are stored somewhere different than the reason I went to the kitchen. I don't know, I'm sure there is some National Geographic magazine article that will tell me, but I can't remember which year it was. hehe

Perhaps that is what scrapbooking is all about.......although how will I put the clock in the album? ah shit, I don't really need the clock I guess. I can't remember the point of this blog now, so I'll leave it at that......

Arzie's new kitchen in progress

Moving in?

Yes folks, it's scary but this is the view from Arlene's front door, thru the living room, dining room and into the kitchen.

Back to School Memories

The time rapidly approaches; as an adult, my favorite time of year, the time when the little hoodlums go back to school. I think fondly of September 5th when all these brats will be in school and not wandering the streets of Los Angeles breaking into people's houses while they work. But alas, this time of year brings back other memories. I think back on my childhood "back to school" days. We didn't have a list of items you had to buy for school, like pencils and paper and books, instead they were provided to us by our taxes. Today people buy hundreds of $$ of stuff. I think my first year of Junior High (a terrifying time in my life) I had to buy a combination lock for my very first locker. I think it was $3. I still have that lock and still know it's combination. It was a good buy to be sure.

I remember in grade school with my mom and dad taking me shopping for back to school clothes and I needed a winter coat. Being Canada and all..... So, they decided I needed this long coat that covered my ass and my knees. It was green and "pillowed" I think they called it, I don't know, it was ugly as hell, I hated it and was embarrassed to wear it. I don't think I wore it more than twice then I switched to my light fall jacket and a hoodie. For those of you yanks that don't know what a hoodie is, it's a sweatshirt with a hood.

Remember the days of mimeograph machines? I remember in grade school when you were a big shit when you got to go downstairs and run the machine for the teacher..... I also remember in Junior High when Wranglers were popular and we couldn't afford them for me. :-( How sad. This is another reason Junior High was so tramatic for me.

Back to school is here! Get off my airplane and back in your classrooms!

Hole in One!

My friend Gwyn had a moment of a lifetime yesterday as her tee shot off of 14 kerplunked into the hole. Here it is, a great advertisement for Nike......It's amazing how well Gwyn plays when we're playing for money! She really knows how to step up her game when there are US Greenbacks on the line. Here's another pic of the happy girl!

A strange day

As I was driving home from the Capri Avian vet surgeon after dropping our lovebird Ginghi off for surgery, I decided that I needed some cheering up. I had my clubs in the car and decided I'd go to the Rancho Park Par 3 for a quick lunch round. Always a stress reliever. I've never really played the Par 3's with my full set of clubs but it was all I had. I thought, surely I can carry them around for 9 little holes.

As I putted on the 3rd hole I heard a scream and a woman running frantically around the 6th green with a bird chasing her. I noticed immediately that it was a pet and not a pigeon or something, so I got off the course and grabbed my golf towel ( only carried on my big set of clubs ) and ran over there. The poor bird was just trying to land on the ladies shoulder. This little cockatiel was sitting on the 6th tee quiet as can be probably waiting for the next set of unsuspecting golfers. I walked slowly over to the bird, cooing and talking softly, put my finger out and she just jumped on. What a sweetie. We walked quickly to the car and she was even letting me pet and preen her pin feathers. We stopped briefly in the clubhouse for a quick drink of water, poor thing was thirsty. Fortunately, Helen's Pet shop (Pico - Westside ) is just a block away and I drove over there.

It seems no one has inquired about a lost bird. So I bought a cage and drove home. Unfortunately, I've named the damn bird already -- Rancho. Fitting I think. I told Dena about the bird and she immediately broke down crying. Dena doesn't believe in co-incidences and she was thinking that this bird was brought into our lives because Ginghi was going to die on the operating table. Fortunately, 4 hours later, we've heard, our lovebird is recovering nicely from surgery and can come home tomorrow. I've got to say, Rancho is the prettiest Cockatiel I've ever seen with long, colorful tail feathers. Amazing......

Walk off home run

Sunday August 13th found us at the Los Angeles Sparks game, eagerly looking at the scoreboard for the LA Dodgers game score. It was tied 0 - 0 in the 10th inning. You see, it was a sold out game at Chavez Ravine with Greg Maddus pitching. We weren't there. What a shame. The games that Maddux has pitched at home, we haven't had tickets to. It would be a thrill to watch him pitch. A legend. In the 10th inning Russel Martin hit what they term a "walk off" home run. At first I thought that this meant that the bases were loaded and Russell Martin was walked home. Hence, a "walk off" run. But no, a "walk off" home run is where a guy hits the home run with no one on base, it's the game winner, and he runs the bases, after he crosses home everyone walks off the field into the club house. There is no need to play anymore as the game is over. Hence the term walk off. So there you have it, a new thing learned.....

For game recap, click here

3rd Tee

Here's the view from the 3rd tee at the Pioneer Meadows Golf Course in Edmonton. It's illegal to kill a Canadian Goose so I proceeded to herd them off the tee. Unfortunately, they didn't appreciate that and went right back at me, hissing loudly and then headed right back on the tee. We were eventually able to drive, but as was "par" for this course, it was another psychological obstacle to overcome.

Thoughts for the day

Embarassing Moment -- At the end of lunch with 7 Bellsouth guys I was taking my vitamins, the embarassing moment was when I dropped one down my shirt perfectly into my cleavage.

Positive Thought Moment -- If Paula Creamer (LPGA youngster) is battling tendonitis at the Evian masters and playing thru the pain, then I shouldn't be ashamed of mine nor let it hinder my play.....

Aspiration for the Day -- Have a golf swing like Michell Wie

another day in the air.....

As I headed for the airport I was filled with dread. My last 3 visits have been terrible, flight delays, huge crowds and the like. What was today to bring. I walked up to the automated machine and tried my luck, BAM! Here comes my boarding pass, and off to the security I go. Hmmm, lucky so far.

I sailed thru security and as I sat at the gate this tall, blonde haired woman approached me and sat down. She struck up a conversation immediately. Obviously not an American I thought. She proceeded to tell me her life story. She came to America from Sweden and ended up in Fort McMurray of all places when she was 21. (Fort McMurray is 500 miles north of Edmonton, Alberta and is a booming oil sands town) This was in the 70's. 10,000 men and 600 women. Not good odds. She says back in the 70's it was a rough and tumble place where women had to learn to literally fight men off. She worked as a construction apprentice for 18 months making $9 an hour.

Next month her and her son are moving to the big island of Hawaii where there is a school near Kona called the West Hawaii Explorations Academy. It sounds like an amazing school. What a treat it would have been as a kid to have snorkelling on the agenda for the day's learning. School's explanation here

After boarding the plane and having a wonderful first class ride to denver, I knew it was too good to be true. As I boarded the plane for Atlanta kid after kid boarded after me. One 3 year old had a melt down right in the aisle by my seat. "Please let you seat be in the back of the plane" I hoped. Sitting behind me were 3 kids and their mom. The little girl threw up both for take off and landing. A lovely cat ( of which I'm deathly allergic to ) made the trip 5 rows behind me. The plane smelled like cat litter and vomit. What a lovely combination. Forunately I made it to Atlanta where it is raining and 82 degrees. It's nice that it's cooler than Los Angeles.

Lake of the Woods Sunset

More on Alberta's "world's largest"

MUNDARE, Alberta -- World's Largest Ukrainian Sausage Built to commemorate sausage making in Mundare, this 42 foot high sausage was funded by a non-profit foundation created by the Stawnichy Family of Stawnichy's Meat Processing. Kind of looks like......poop?











Peter Fidler Statue The statue, of Hudson's Bay surveyor Peter Fidler, was carved with a chainsaw by Herman Poulin as part of Elk Point's 1992 Bicentennial Project and stands 32 feet high and 8 feet wide. Directions: Located at the north end of Elk Point on Highway 41.

My sister's next baby......

Modern technology is amazing nowadays. This is a 3D image of my sister Krystal and Ian's next child. Now you can either get a copy of this 3D kind of image or of the original B/W kind. Pretty darn cool if you ask me. It's a girl by the way.....

Travelling Alberta.....

Well here it is folks, me under the world's largest egg statue. This egg is in Vegreville. It's an Ukranian egg, easter egg to be exact. The bronze, gold and silver designs tell the story of the area's settlers - their strong faith, the good harvest, and the protection received from the R.C.M.P. The Pysanka is also one of the premier attractions along the Yellowhead Highway. Isn't that scary.


This next picture is of the statue my sister Krystal promised me was in Vegreville - a strong Ukranian community. She said that the world's largest pyrogy was there. It wasn't; we got the egg instead. But just because I know a lot of you are dying to know what the world's largest pyrogy might look like, here it is. It is also in Alberta, about 110 km from the egg. There are a lot of the world's largest in Alberta. That is also scary.


Created to attract tourists to the village of Glendon Alberta, the World's Largest Pyrogy, constructed by PML Exhibits of Calgary, was unveiled on August 31, 1993. The Pyrogy stands 25 feet tall, 12 feet wide and weighs 6000 pounds. Directions: Located on Pyrogy Drive in Pyrogy Park. <-- Naturally....

Golf in Canada - lessons learned

As I sit here with a bag of frozen peas on my swollen knees, I find myself pondering the lessons learned over the last 36 holes of golf in Canada. I've actually used my 5 iron. I'd never taken it out of the bag before. I thought that the hybrid was the end all of my fairway clubs, not true. You see, in California where I've golfed, there's the fairway and then there's the "rough" which is grass not more than 3/4" - 1" higher than the fairway grass. No big deal. I can hit my hybrid there no problem. Well in Canada, there's the fairway, then what they call the 2nd cut and then there's the "rough". Well the 2nd cut is grass about 2" high minimum (usually 2.5" - 3") and the rough is grass anywhere from 3" high to 18" high or more likely trees, leaves, bushes, high grass, vines and maybe a little poison ivy thrown in for good measure. So in the rough you do not want to be. My brother lost 12 balls in 36 holes. I'm proud to say that I only lost 2. So a lesson learned is not to use the hybrid in that kind of grass, it's really only good for me on the fairway. I need an iron to get through that thick grass.

Day one was a nice course with many, many mature trees, wide fairways, jack rabbits the size of deer and no bathrooms..... I shot what I think is my best score ever. 107 -- I usually don't even add up the score because I think it's so bad. My family golfs quite seriously. Losing your ball is a stroke penalty per the rules. Stroke penalties are taken seriously. My brother shot a 103 even after taking about 7 strokes. Not bad. He's usually under 100 but the trees ate him up. My brother-in-law shot a 98 and he took about 6 strokes. The 2nd day golfing was at our local course and it was windy as a hurricane all day, blowing our balls all over the place. My dad and I tied again with a score of 115. Not bad considering the wind and a swollen knee.

Well, tomorrow is the 2 day xcountry drive with my mom, sister and 3 year old niece. Wish me luck.

Half way done

As I sit here this morning rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I find myself pondering the first official day of my vacation. It dawns on me (no pun intended) that it's July 5th. The year is half over. Many friends have had birthdays, we've BBQ'd, I've flown all over the USA, and all in a blink of an eye. It seems each day I stop to think about it, another 3 months have gone by.

I wonder if time just seems to be moving faster because I'm older? I remember asking my mom when I was in my thirties if she thought time just flew by, she said it went faster and faster the older whe was. But is this really true? Perhaps it's just because our lives are so much busier that time moves faster. There seems to be less time to just "be" as we rush about getting things done and crossing items off our to do lists. I'm not sure I even know how to relax anymore. Well, I'll be on my way to my gramma's soon, there's nothing to do there, so I guess it'll force me to relax.

Well, I've got to run -- got to rush to the airport.....I'll stop and smell the roses later.....

Sitting in the airport you see & hear things

A group of 4 women chatting together using words like paradyne, server infrastructure continuity and drilling down and mining data. It was heartening to hear such tech savvy 40 something women networking and making business decisions. It’s not often seen in my travels. Data and/or IT has always seemed to be a man’s world. They chatted on this high level for about 60 minutes, using words that I may have to look up. Then the conversation turned to knitting….

A mother feeding cough medicine to her 2 year old. The boy wasn’t coughing so I suspect it was to put him asleep on the flight.

Woman from Australia who had tripped or was tripped on her flight from Sidney to LAX. She was being interviewed by a high level supervisor from United. She basically said she wasn’t going to sue but that her head hurt and her leg was badly twisted. She wanted to be moved to a seat that had more leg room. He moved her but didn’t put her in first class. He should have moved her to First. Idiot. I bet if she was a man he would have.

Summer Travel Season

The summer travel season has begun. I hate this time of year – meaning the time between when any school gets let out and goes back in session. This is the worst time of year for any business traveler. We have to endure the horribly long lines at the airport (thank goodness for my status), long lines for security, stupid people, delayed flights, screaming kids and over sold flights. The airport is so packed at this time of year its literally hard to move around.

Since I have status I can bypass all of this – however, the line currently to check-in at United is an hour and ½ long. The line for outside baggage check is ½ an hour. The inside security line is an hour. The standby list for the flight I’m on right now is > 100. That’s because of many people missing their flights or under the 45 minute limit for bag check. That’s new you know. If you get to the head of the check-in line and it’s < 45 minutes before your flight, they will not check your bag. If it’s too big for carryon then guess what – you’ve missed that plane.

I can’t wait for September….

WNBA contenders

The 21st was a good day as the look of pure rapture on Ruby's face will attest to. The LA Sparks kicked Houston's butt and went on to win 7 straight. The best part of the game was Ruby yelling at Lisa Leslie as she went into the tunnel. A true fan. The game ended with Auntie Dawn managing to score some autograph coupons for the kids and them getting #00 Paige and Johnson's autograph. Ruby shook hands with Johnson and claims she'll never wash it again. It's wonderful to see how the Sparks treat their fans and especially the kids.

The Sparks are now in first place in the West with a record of 10-3.

Have you noticed when you're pulling $100 out of the ATM that it seems like a lot less cash than it did 10 years ago?

NGS Genographic Project - Eve > L0/L1 >L2

L2 individuals are found in sub-saharan Africa and like their L1 predecessors, they also live in Central Africa and as far south as South Africa. But where the L1/L0 peoples remained predominantly in East and Southern Africa, my ancestors broke off into a different direction, West. This L2 line is predominantly African-Americans. Not much is known about this genetic mutation and much genetic sampling is going on right now in West Africa and the United States to determine where, how and when this group emerged. It appears that although this is part of the migration my group (ultimately haplogroup X) did not follow this line.

See next post for L3 - Out of Africa.

NGS Genographic Project - Eve > L0/L1

Previously I discussed the Mitochondrial Eve and how she represents the root of the family tree. Her descendents, moving around within Africa, eventually split into 2 distinct groups, characterized by a different set of genetic mutations their members carry. These 2 groups are referred to as L0 and L1. These individuals have the most divergent genetic sequences of anyboy alive today, meaning they represent the deepest branches of the mitochondrial tree. That's me :-)

Haplogroups L1 and L0 likely originated in East Africa and then spread throughout the rest of the continent. These were the hunter-gatherers. At some point, after these 2 groups had coexisted in Africa for a few thousand years, something important happened. The mitochondrial sequence of a woman in one of these groups, L1, mutated. One letter in her DNA changed and because many of her descendants have survived to present this change is a window to the past. This group went on to form their own group, L2. So, to follow -- Eve begat L1, and L1 begat L2.

Next, where did L2 migrate to?

MOCA

As we meander thru the people in the courtyard outside MOCA many things pop into my head. I wonder about like minded people. The people invited to this event have one common thread - they listen to NPR and have the means to donate a certain level of cash to the cause. It has always struck me that folks that listen to NPR are thoughtful, intelligent, liberal, to some degree at least, and open minded. The open minded trait seems important here at MOCA. It's the Rauschenberg exhibit that we are all here to see. (Or is it the free booze and food catered by Patina?)

The whole Rauschenberg thing is new for me. If someone were to ask, I could explain his art as, "he wanted to create in the space between life and art". I think that sums it up nicely. As I walk into the exhibit I notice these like minded, well educated NPR listeners doing much the same as I am. Some giggle as they look at a piece, some tilt their head at an angle perhaps to get a better view or maybe to rock the brain into understanding. Some stare purposefully making the rest of us wonder what the hell we're missing and some diligently read the little explanations....

Speaking of the explanations on the wall -- who writes this stuff. A word used in one was --scatological. What the hell is that. The only definition I could find was: dealing pruriently with excrement and excretory functions; "scatological literature" . I'm not even sure I really understand the definition but it seeems to me it's shit......yes, someone used a big word to describe a Rauschenberg piece as shit. hehe

There was also a lot of talk regarding the iconology represented in his pieces. Here's another big word after you've had 2 martinis. Iconology: defined as the branch of art history that studies visual images and their symbolic meaning (especially in social or political terms). OK, I'll buy that. But did he actually put the symbols there or are people just reading a whole lot into it? Here's the link to the Ram/urban garden "combine". What does the tennis ball represent? Some people say it speaks volumes. I can see the tire around the ram, but..... Ah well, it was a beautiful night to spend viewing art, watching people and thinking about how minute I am in the world....

Canadian takes 2nd in Bee

Today, my usual Canadian pride is bursting at the seams! What an exciting match on ABC last night as for the first time ever, the International Spelling Bee was televised on network TV. It was rife with stupid commentary (as only the Americans can...), controversy, humor and cliff hanging moments. Not to mention educational for those of us who haven't studied 98% - 100% of the dictionary.

Finola Hackett, a 14-year-old eighth grader from Tofield, Alta., took the $12,000 US second prize Thursday in the competition, worth more than $40,000 US for winner Katherine Close, from Ashbury Park, N.J.
Hackett was poised, her hands clasped in front of her, as she nailed several tough words to make it that far in the final two hours of the two-day annual spell-fest. She easily spelled out knaidel, a dumpling, and formenkreis, a group of related species. She even got dasyphyllous, meaning with downy leaves.

But Hackett, who began in a field of 274 competitors, finally got stumped on weltschmerz, a mental depression, and gave the spelling as veltschmerz. Frustrated the hell out of me because her Dad is German and she asked for the origin of the word. W's are pronounced with a V! Regardless, she's a proud girl and I'm a proud Canadian.

"I'm really proud of what I did for Canada," the teary youngster said after congratulating the winner on stage.

NGS Geno Project - Mitochondrial Eve

Mitochondrial Eve is the name given by researchers to the woman who is the most recent common matrilineal ancestor of all living humans. We know about Eve because of mitochondria.
Naming Mitochondrial Eve after Eve of the Genesis creation story, has led to some misunderstandings among the general public. A common misconception is that Mitochondrial Eve was the only living female of her time — she was not (indeed, had she been, humanity would have probably become extinct). Many women alive at the same time as Mitochondrial Eve have descendants alive today. However, only Mitochondrial Eve produced an unbroken line of daughters that persists today — each of the other matrilineal lineages was broken when all the women in a particular matriarchal ancestry had only sons, or no children at all.

Simply put, Eve was a survivor. A maternal line can become extinct for a number of reasons. A soman may not have children, she may bear only sons, (who do not pass mtDNA to the next generation). She may fall victim to a catastrophic event (Volcanic eruption, landslide, flood, famine, etc), all of which have plagued humanity since the dawn of time.

After getting my DNA results back from the NGS my DNA goes all the way back to the Mitochondrial Eve, starting somewhere in or around the Olduvai gorge in Kenya, East Africa.

More on my DNA's particular journey in the next post.

JPL open house -- Cassini-Huygens

Here's a picture of our latest adventures. JPL in Pasadena, CA had an open house this past weekend. What a blast. With life size and scaled models of everything from the Mars Rover, Opportunity and Cassini-Huygens (Saturn). It was very educational for both the adults and the kids. The kids asked very engaging questions and basically spent the whole day saying, "Wow!" and "Cool!" JPL holds this event open to the public once a year. If you ever have an opportunity, kids or no kids, GO! I personally had no idea we were orbitting Saturn or had placed a probe on Saturn's moon, Titan. Sounds almost Star Treky.

NGS Genographic Kit Status

My DNA has been processed and my genome migration route plotted. Stay tuned to this blog for a description of my ancient ancestral migration and other tantalizing tidbits. As a reminder, detailed information on the project in general can be found under the NGS Genographic website here. And you can purchase a kit and be a part of an important study on the migration of hominoids here.

Part of the study has funded and contributed DNA markers to another important project studying recent (aka 10,000 years) changes in our DNA. These changes have occurred in different population segments depending on where in the world. The full article can be found here and here is an excerpt:

For example, major changes in diet occurred as nomadic hunter-gatherers slowly shifted to a settled agricultural existence. Pritchard says this transition left a legacy of strong selection on genes associated with the processing of carbohydrates and fatty acids. The clearest example—one previously known about by researchers—is the gene that allows for the digestion of milk into adulthood.

Among Europeans, whose ancestors relied on milk products as an important food source, this gene has become widespread. In most other human populations the gene is rare.
The study also provides new evidence that mutations to better digest different food products have spread in other groups. Asian and African populations showed selection in genes affecting the metabolism of the plant sugars mannose and sucrose. All three groups also showed selection for different genes involved in the uptake, storage, and energy conversion of dietary fats.
Another previously unreported example of natural selection involves the genes that people today rely on to process most pharmaceutical products.

Trunk Bay - St. John

This is a picture of Trunk Bay on the Island of St. John. It is a truly spectacular beach. This beach is part of a national park that encompasses most of the island. It has a fairly unique feature in that not only are their hiking trails but there is a snorkel trail. There is a snorkel travil that goes around that little island in the bay. I think it's probably about a 1/2 mile swim all around it. I did it, it was awesome!